


Mercator Can’t Help You Now (But Maybe There’s Someone Who Can)

by TrekInTandem



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doctor/River Song Preshippiness, Episode Related, Episode: s04e11 Turn Left, Gen, It's not really a shippy fic, Missing Scene, Rose Tyler Loves the Doctor, Rose Tyler Meets Melody Pond, Which explains rather a lot left unexplained by the ep actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-26 21:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18725512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrekInTandem/pseuds/TrekInTandem
Summary: The stars are going out, and the darkness is coming. The walls between realities are already breaking down, but even so, Rose Tyler can’t quite seem to get through to the Doctor. And she could really use a hand with saving the universe.  Luckily for her, Melody Pond’s calendar just opened up.It’s Christmas Eve 2007 in the alternate universe of “Turn Left.” The night the Racnoss attacked London and the Doctor was there to stop them. The night the Doctor died. You don’t really think there's any universe in which Melody Pond would have been anywhere ELSE that night, do you?





	Mercator Can’t Help You Now (But Maybe There’s Someone Who Can)

_Boys, sound the bells._  
_The sun rose from the west today._  
_I doubt we'll see it set._  
  
_Boys, bear it well._  
_Put all your paper maps away._  
_Mercator here can’t help._  
                                                      — Dessa, “Sound the Bells”

* * *

 

Another day, another attempt. Another parallel universe.

She has been looking for the Doctor—the right Doctor, her Doctor—for _so long_.

This time she recognizes the area where she’s come through. She’s on Earth, 21st century London. In the universe from which she’s just come, Torchwood has a facility not far from here. It may or may not exist in this universe, but it seems as good a direction as any in which to head, especially as she can hear the sound of sirens coming from that direction.

There’s trouble that way. If the Doctor is around, where else would he be other than right in the middle of it?

The air smells of smoke and destruction, and once she turns the corner, she can see, even from blocks away, the flickering light not just of emergency vehicles but of a sizable fire, too. Here the street is full of people. Some are moving curiously toward the action, while others are hurrying away, obviously survivors of whatever’s happened, their hair and clothes dirtied, some with cuts on their faces or clutching an arm to their chest or limping. Still more people are standing around in tight clutches, pointing up the street and murmuring or calling out to the wounded to ask what’s happening.

She moves through all of them without pausing, focused on her goal, but then stops. Something in the corner of her eye has caught her attention. She looks around and finds the oddity. A girl who is not running away or hurrying closer or staring up the street. She’s staring straight at Rose, in fact, and when their eyes meet, she starts forward, sidestepping a man that runs past without even glancing at him.

She’s young, no more than sixteen or seventeen, wearing what looks like a school uniform under a black leather jacket, and is apparently completely unaffected by the chaos around them.

Her calm in the midst of chaos and her intent focus on Rose are so strange that Rose stays where she is and waits for the girl to approach.

The girl stops a few feet away. “Well, now. And what are _you_?”

She seems to be speaking more to herself than to Rose, but Rose is affronted enough by the question to reply. “Excuse me?”

“You’re human, but you’re _wrong_ ,” the girl says, still not actually addressing Rose as she looks her over critically. “You don’t belong here.” She takes half a step closer suddenly and Rose actually finds herself backing up. “This is not your universe,” the girl says sharply, speaking _to_ her now for the first time.

Rose gasps. How can she possibly know that?

“How are you here, then?” The girl leans in and draws a deep breath through her nose as if she’s savoring the smell of smoke in the air. “Dimensional transport.” Her eyes fall to the pocket in which Rose stuffed her recall button. She sniffs again, scornfully this time. “Not exactly a major feat these days.”

“How—how did you know that? Who are you?” Rose blurts.

“I know a lot of things,” the girl says smugly. She snaps her fingers and points at Rose, smiling. “That’s it. I know _your_ face, too. You’re Rose Tyler.”  She looks Rose up and down, and when she once again starts speaking as if to herself, her words make the hair on Rose’s arms stand up. “All that energy inside you,” she murmurs. “All that _time_.”

Her eyes focus on Rose’s again, her whole demeanor changing, and some of the weirdness of the moment drains away, to Rose’s relief.  “Leaves a mark,” she says with a shrug. The girl looks and sounds like any other unimpressed, too-cool-to-care teenager now. “That’s what made me notice you in the first place.” Then her brows draw together and she tilts her head. “Why _bad wolf_?”

“What?” Rose whispers.

The girl shrugs again. “Don’t blame me.” She crosses her arms with a toss of her head. “You’re the one shouting it. Not my fault if I overhear.”

Rose makes an effort to gather herself. “What are you, psychic?”

“Maybe. Sometimes,” she says dismissively. “But mostly just telepathic.” Eyes laughing, she puts a finger to her lips. “But don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.”

“Why you telling me, then?” Rose demands, confrontational because she doesn’t like how this girl keeps wrong-footing her. 

Another shrug. “Doesn’t matter with you. You’re not from here. You’re not staying. Neither is _here_ for that matter.” She pauses as if she’s considering something and then smiles. “So tell whoever you like.”

“Wait—what’d you mean? You know what’s happening? About . . . the end?”

“Oh, that. I’m not too worried about that. This little universe will be history long before . . . _the darkness_ gets it. That’s what you call it, right?” She chuckles. “The darkness.”

“Stop doing that!”

“Well, stop thinking so loud!”

“Who are you?” Rose steps closer, leans in aggressively. “You know my name. What’s yours?”

“Mels. Mels Zucker.” She smiles into Rose’s scowling face. Then her hands dart out suddenly and cup Rose’s cheeks with startling intimacy. “I’ll tell you another secret, Rose Tyler! I’m really Melody Pond,” she says joyfully, her sudden delight more than a little off-putting. “Melody Pond,” she repeats and then laughs happily as she lets Rose go. “Been decades since anyone spoke that name on this planet. Doesn’t matter now, though. No need to hide when there’s no mission, not anymore.”

“Mission?” Rose says slowly, taken aback yet again by the sudden change in Melody’s mood. The exuberance suddenly squelched, she now seems . . . sad.

“Never mind. You might as well get on with it.” She starts to turn away. “You won’t find him, you know, but you’ve got other business here.”

Rose grabs her sleeve before she can leave. “Him? You—you mean the Doctor? You know him?”

Melody’s face then is so full of sadness—sadness for _her—_ that Rose suddenly feels her eyes welling with tears, her heart racing frantically.

“Don’t you get it?” Melody asks gently. “That’s what’s wrong with this place. He’s _gone_.”

Rose grips Melody’s arm more tightly, and it’s as if something intangible passes from her skin to Rose’s through the layers of clothing in between. _Bad Wolf_ , Rose thinks. _It’s in her too._

Then Melody shakes her arm free, and Rose gets her question out through a choked throat. “What do you mean he’s gone?”

Melody looks away, and Rose follows her gaze, realizing she’s staring up the street, toward whatever disaster has happened here.

And suddenly Rose is running.  She’s a block away before she’s aware of it. Running and running as if she might not already be too late.

-x-

Another day, another attempt. Another parallel universe.

She’s on Earth again. Not London like the last time she hit Earth. Surely there’s nowhere _this_ quiet in London, even in the middle of the night, which this seems to be, judging by the dark houses on the street on which she’s found herself. Judging by the cars parked in front of the houses, it’s the early 21st century again, though.

She looks around for the Doctor, for the TARDIS, like she always does. The dimension cannon is programmed to lock onto the TARDIS.  Its accuracy leaves something to be desired.

What catches her eye is the blue door of the house across the street. Even though it’s a brighter, cheerier blue, it reminds her of the TARDIS.  

For a wild moment, Rose wonders if the house _is_ the TARDIS. But that’s just hope talking, right?

Still, she crosses to the house and prowls around the side of it, into the back garden.

There’s nothing there.  Just overgrown shrubs, weeds, and an old shed. She can’t account for the terrible disappointment she feels. It’s like some part of her was _certain_ the TARDIS would be back here for some reason. Stupid.

She leans her back against the door of the shed and sinks down until she’s sitting propped against it. She’ll just take a minute. Just a minute and then she’ll figure out where to go from here. She’ll go back to the street where she arrived and figure out where to look next.

“Oi!” The sharp whisper startles her and her head whips in the direction from which it came.

A girl is standing at the corner of the house. The girl she met in London the night the Doctor died. Melody Pond.

Melody plants her hands on her hips. “What are _you_ doing here?” she hisses.

It’s obvious that this is the same Melody Pond she met in London—at least this Melody Pond knows Rose somehow. Rose gets to her feet. “Where _is_ here?”

Melody has moved close enough that Rose can see her rolling her eyes. “Leadworth, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom, Earth. That dimensional transport of yours must not be very good if you don’t even know where you are.”

“It’s designed to lock onto the Doctor’s TARDIS.” She stops herself. “You know what that is?”

“Yeah, yeah, and it’s not anywhere around _here_. I’d know, same as I knew when _you_ turned up.”

“It’s gotta be around here somewhere,” Rose says, turning as her eyes scan the garden again.

Melody is shaking her head impatiently. “He’s _dead_ ,” she says. “Didn’t you get that the last time? He died in that explosion. You’re not going to find him in this universe. Go look somewhere else.”

She reaches out as if she’s going to take hold of Rose’s arm and drag her out of the garden but then drops her hand at the last minute. “Go on. Get outta here,” she says instead.

Rose ignores her. “This doesn’t make any sense. The dimension cannon locks onto the TARDIS. It’s not dead on, okay,” she admits grudgingly, “but I’m always _close_. Why would it bring me here?” A thought occurs and she turns sharply to Melody. “Why are _you_ here? You were in London last time.”

Melody rolls her eyes. “Yeah, and now I’m here. I live here.” Rose looks up at the house behind her. “No, not _here_ but in Leadworth.”

“Okay, then whose house is this?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s just a house. Got nothing to do with any TARDIS. The TARDIS hasn’t left London.”

Rose’s attention snaps away from the mystery of the house at that. “Yeah? You know that for a fact? How?”

“Because I do. UNIT took it—you got UNIT where you’re from?” Rose nods. “They’ve got it locked away.”

“In London?”

“That’s right. So what?”

“So, why am I _here_ , with _you_? The only person I’ve met in any universe who can just look at me and tell I don’t belong. And somehow you know the walls are breaking down, don’t you? You knew that’s what’s making it possible for me to jump between universes. And you know about the coming darkness, too. _And_ the Doctor. Last time you said something about a mission. What mission? Were you with the Doctor before he—? Were you going to help him fix things?”

Melody has none of Rose’s own urgency. She stands there quiet and still for a moment and seems to be coming to a decision before she answers.

“You think I’m like you, one of his _companions_? Fix things! God, but you’re so _sweet_ and young!”

“Oi, I’m older than you are!”

Melody bursts out laughing.

Rose fumes at her inexplicable merriment. “All right, if you weren’t helping him fix things, then what?”

“Fix things,” Melody repeats again, shaking her head in amusement. “I was going to marry him. Or kill him. I hadn’t decided yet.”

“Marry—!” Rose shrieks, then interrupts herself to blurt, “The Doctor, getting married—I don’t think!”

Melody shrugs, still amused. “Or kill him. I did say I hadn’t decided.”

“Arrgh! What are you tal—could you be serious here for a—wait, you _are_ serious, aren’t you? What the _hell!_ Why would you want to kill him??”

 Melody shrugs and folds her legs under to plop down on the ground right where she’s standing. “I didn’t particularly. You could say it was my job. My purpose. My _raison d’_ _être_ ,” she adds witheringly. “Doesn’t matter now. He’s dead, and the people who wanted me to kill him will never have the chance to decide they want that anyway.”

“Huh?”

“They’re from the _future_ , numpty. And that future is never going to happen now.”

“Because he’s already dead,” Rose says, getting it now.

“That’s right.”

“But wait, if that future no longer exists, then these people who wanted you to kill him—how do you know about them?”

Melody taps her temple. “I’ve got a very good memory.”

Rose widens her eyes and blows a breath out between pursed lips. “I’ll say.” She sits down across from Melody. “So, look, if it was your _purpose_ to kill him, what are you doing now?”

Melody looks up from idly plucking at the grass. “Oh, just waiting for the world to end,” she says sarcastically.

“Sounds dull.”

“A bit.”

“Well, look. I think I’ve figured out when and why this universe split off from mine, and I think it’s connected to what’s happening to all the universes. There’s a woman. In my universe, she met the Doctor. In this universe, she didn’t. And there’s something weird there—something . . . I don’t know, but I think it’s why I can’t get through to _my_ universe. And I really _need_ to. I need to warn the Doctor about what’s coming. So. What’d’ya say? Want to help me save the multiverse?”

Melody laughs. “Oh, why not.”

So Rose explains about Donna Noble, how she met her the same night she first met Melody, about the thing on her back, about the timelines the dimension cannon is able to detect, about how she thinks what they mean—and don’t ask her to explain how or why—is that it’s Donna Noble and the Doctor who can stop the catastrophe that’s coming and no one else.

“Okay,” Melody says.

“Okay? You, uh, you actually believe me? Even that bit about the timelines converging and what I think it means? You don’t think I’m crazy?”

“I didn’t say that.” Melody smirks and then sobers. “Look, I felt the time energy inside you before I ever saw you that night in London.  Whatever you are—were—the thing you think of as the Bad Wolf—it’s gone but it changed you. You’re human, but you’re not _just_ human, either, not anymore. If you tell me you interpreted a few timelines, I believe you.”

“Wait— _either_? What do you mean, _either_?”

“C’mon. You felt it, same as I did, when you touched me. You know I don’t know so much because _the Doctor told me_ ,” she says, the last words mocking.

“Well, what are you then?”

“You really wanna know? Oh, I’m not sure I should. You’d never believe it.”

“You believed me. Try me.”

“What the hell. Okay. I’m part time lord.”

Rose gapes. “You’re . . .”

“Part human, part time lord. Parents did the nasty in the time vortex and _voila._ ” She points to her cheek. “Not the face I was born with.”

“You—you regenerated?”

“Give the girl a prize. So, believe me?”

Rose shrugs. “Makes as much sense as anything, I guess.”

“Now that’s out of the way, did you have a _plan_ for saving the world or what?”

“What if we could make it so this universe’s Donna meets the Doctor after all?”

“If that’s the point of divergence, this universe would be unwritten. Never exist.”

Rose nods slowly. “The night we met, you said this universe would be history before the darkness reached it. _This_ is what you meant, isn’t it? You gave me the idea. You _saw_ it. Not because you’re psychic. You just . . . just . . .”

“Felt it. You’re not the only one who can interpret timelines. I don’t need any technology to show me them either.”

“Yeah, well, good for you. So, if we can do it, you think I’d be able to get into my universe?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And you’ll help me?”

“Said I would.”

“Even though this universe will be destroyed?”

Melody shrugs. “Never much liked it. I can see where it’s going, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

“All right then!” Rose exclaims, clapping her hands in giddy relief. Then she slumps. “Just one problem. The only time travel on this planet is the TARDIS, as far as I know. How are we going to get Donna back in time?”

Melody smiles. “The TARDIS, of course.”

“UNIT has it locked away in London, you said. And anyway, I can’t fly it. I did once, but it’s gone now.”

“I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Really?”

A shrug. “How hard can it be?”

Rose looks dubious but then laughs. “Yeah, well, if anyone could. But how will we get to it? How will we even find it?”

“Oh, I know exactly where it is. And how to get to it.”

“You do?”

“Made sure of it. Can’t steal something if you don’t know where it is.”

“You were planning to steal the TARDIS?? From UNIT?”

Melody snorts. “Not like she’s doing that lot any good. Or them her. She’s dying, I think.”

“Dying? _Her_?”

“You didn’t know she was alive?”

“Well, yeah. But I didn’t know you did.”

“Since that night in London. I tracked her down. I could feel her reaching out to me. Calling me.” Melody snaps her fingers. “ _That’s_ what it is in you. Not just time. _Her_. How?”

“How about I tell you on the way to London? Do you have a car?”

Melody bounces to her feet. “What kind would you like?”

-x-

Rose is all for Melody stealing the TARDIS—she expects the other girl _can_ fly it—but Melody has other ideas.

The TARDIS, she says, when they are hiding outside the UNIT base where it’s under guard, is too far gone to make the trip.  She’s furious with herself for waiting too long, but then she says it wouldn’t have mattered. It’s this damn universe that’s killing her. It’s just that _wrong_.

Her new plan is that Rose should use UNIT resources to build their own time machine for the TARDIS to power.

“You mean _we_ , don’t you?”

“No, you. I’m going back to Leadworth. It’s going to take you at least a year, and a lot of bad stuff is going to happen between now and then. I need to look after my parents.”

“Your parents?”

“That house where I found you? That’s my mum’s house.”

“When you said your parents—in the vortex . . .”

“Yeah, yeah, aboard the TARDIS, all right? They traveled with the Doctor like you did. Or they would have done. Never will now. Right now they’re still just kids, even younger than you are.”

“You’re blowing my mind here! You’ve come back in time, then? But wait, if they never go with the Doctor, then how are you—?”

“Shh! Don’t ask too many questions! I might pop out of existence!”

“What—! Are you serious!?”

Melody laughs. “No, of course not. Look, just accept it, okay. I’m _special_. Now, here’s what you do . . .”

 -x-

Melody gets her past security. Rose follows her advice from before and doesn’t ask questions, even when Melody grabs one soldier, who wasn’t where he was supposed to be and found them where they weren’t supposed to be, and snogs him silly—and he collapses, unconscious, as soon as she lets him go.

Melody gets them without further incident into the very room where the TARDIS is stored, cold and dark. Rose has seen a lot, a lot of sad things too, but none of it sadder than the sight of the TARDIS like this.

Her key doesn’t work, maybe it can’t with the TARDIS in this state, but then Melody stands with her hands on the door for a moment—and then opens it without one.

Melody won’t come inside with her. 

When she’s left, Rose waits, as instructed, half an hour in the dark and deadened silence of the console room for the security cameras that Melody had put on some sort of loop to start working properly again.

Then she marches out of the TARDIS bold as brass and starts giving orders. It works surprisingly well.

Months later, when they’re ready for their first test run, she sets her destination to the date Melody suggested. She’s supposed to buy a winning raffle ticket and make sure Donna Noble gets it. She’s supposed to tell her to go away for Christmas.

At the time Melody told her to do this, it was a date in the future, but now it’s six months in the past, and Rose _knows_ why Donna needs to get out of London.  London doesn't _exist_ anymore. Thanks to Melody, she’d had the TARDIS relocated to the north, far enough to be safe from the radioactive fallout. She wonders now if Melody knew exactly what was coming or only just enough to warn them away. Well, as Melody would have said, doesn’t matter.

She knew _enough_ , and her instructions for building their time machine and hooking into the TARDIS work, too.

Rose finds herself back in London before it was destroyed, on the day the Judoon transported Royal Hope Hospital to the moon. She sneaks into the office where Donna works and hides the raffle ticket in her stuff while everyone is at lunch.  The next trip, she finds Donna later that same day and urges her to get out of London at Christmas.

Back at UNIT, they don’t take time to celebrate their successful first missions.  It’s time for another trip, but this time, it’s up to her to figure out when and where. And it’ll be up to her alone to convince Donna to come with her once she’s there.

She wastes a moment wishing Melody Pond were here to help her, then another hoping that Melody saw enough of the future to protect her parents from all the disasters of the last sixteen months, that they are all somewhere safe and reasonably comfortable right now, and then she gets on with it.

She’s chosen the day ATMOS began to poison the air. Surely those days are dark enough that Donna will be willing. If not, there have been darker days since on which she can try again.


End file.
